Reviews

KickPort - Drum Insert | Future Percussion Concepts

Details

Written by Bart Elliott

For years drummers have been stuffing pillows, blankets, foam and other materials to provide dampening with the objective of achieving better definition and punch. In doing so, the natural resonance of the drum is sacrificed in two ways: One, anything coming in contact with the shell chokes the tone, and two, the internal dampening materials reduce the resonant space.

The KickPort Drum Insert is designed to enhance the sound of your drum by doing three things simultaneously:

• Ports the kick drum in the same manner of a bass reflex speaker cabinet which boosts low frequencies.
• Adds ideal dampening directly to the resonant head which allows you to remove most if not all of the internal materials thus reclaiming all of the natural resonance and tone of your drum.
• Focuses the air as it exits the kick drum and this compression increases punch.

The overall result is more lows, more tone, better definition and more punch in varying acoustical environments. Additionally these are benefits the drummer can feel behind the kit.

Tips & Suggestions

Future Percussion Concepts recommends that dampening materials only touch the batter head, not the resonant head. They also recommend that you use a reinforcement ring around port hole. See Installation Instruction Sheet. The port hole size should be 5" to 5.5" inches and should NOT affect the sound. Moving the KickPort around in the hole will vary the tone slightly depending on the position, so find the sweet spot.

The KickPort has been used with great results by drummers utilizing many different drum and head combinations. The preferred drumheads are those with more density, especially for the resonant head. Personal favorites are the Remo Powerstroke series on batter and the Remo Emperor (2 ply - 7 mil each ply) on resonant. We also really like the Remo Powerstroke 3 (single ply - 10 mil) on resonant. Sometimes several small pieces of tape may need to be added to the inside edge of the Mylar underlay on Powerstroke 3 to eliminate noise that may occur. This trick is also successful with the Evans Eq3
and similar resonant heads with the internal Mylar underlay.

PLEASE NOTE THAT DRUM HEADS WITH FELT OR FOAM MUFFLING RINGS ON THE RESONANT HEAD WILL TAKE AWAY MOST OR ALL OF THE GREAT QUALITIIES OF THE KICKPORT - YOU ARE ADVISED TO REMOVE THE FELT/FOAM OR USING ANOTHER HEAD.

The KickPort is an innovative tool designed to increase the possibilities and take your bass drum several steps further. There are many great pro and non pro drummers experiencing the same incredible results demonstrated at the 2009 NAMM show.

REVIEW

To fully appreciate and hear the results in the above video,
connect your computer to high quality audio system,
preferably one that incorporates a sub cabinet.